/ 



fV 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 923 867 ft ^ 





American Association of Inventors 
AND Manufacturers. 



Washington, D. C, April i6, 1894.. 

DRAFT Olf A BILL AMENDING THE PATENT LAW PREPARED 
BY THE COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION AND SUBMITTED 
TO THE COMMITTEE ON PATENTS OF THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
section forty-eight hundred and eighty-seven of the Revised 
Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read : 

" Se;ction 4887. No person shall be debarred from receiv- 
ing a patent for his invention or discovery, nor shall any patent 
be declared invalid by reason of its having been patented or 
caused to be patented in a foreign country within one year prior 
to the application for a patent on the same invention in this 
country, but every such patent hereafter granted shall be limited 
in duration to the term for which any such prior patent had 
been granted, or if there be more than one foreign patent prior 
to the filing of the application in this country, then said patent 
granted thereon shall be limited in duration to the term for which 
any such prior foreign patent having the shortest term had been 
granted. No patent now in force, or which shall be hereafter 
granted, shall be held to be limited in its duration, by the 
terms of a prior foreign patent for the same invention unless 
the date from which the term of said foreign patent commences 
to run, was prior to the date of filing of the application for the 
patent in this country. This section shall not apply to any 
patents which have heretofore expired by virture of the Acts 






\^rn,,^ ^^ ^€ 



in force prior to the passage of this Act. But no patent shall 
be granted for an invention previously patented, or for which an 
application for patent has been filed in a foreign country, unless 
the application shall be made in the United States within one 
year from the date of such foreign patent. And if more than 
one patent shall be granted for matter shown or described in a 
prior foreign patent or application for the same invention, such 
patent shall issue simultaneously." 

Skc. 2. That section forty-eight hundred and ninety-four of 
the Revised Statutes be, and hereby is, amended by erasing 
the word " application ' ' and substituting the word ' ' petition " 
in lieu thereof ; also by erasing the words ' ' two years ' ' in 
each place where they occur and substituting in lieu thereof 
the words ' ' six months, ' ' so that the section as amended 
will read : 

" Se;c. 4894. All applications for patents shall be completed 
and prepared for examination within six months after the 
filing of the petition, and in default thereof, or upon failure of 
the applicant to prosecute the same within six months after 
any action therein, of which notice shall have been given to 
the applicant, they shall be regarded as abandoned by the 
parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the 
Commissioner of Patents that such delay was unavoidable." 
This section (two) shall apply only to the applications here- 
after filed. 

Sec. 3. That all actions shall be brought during the term 
for which the I^etters Patent shall be granted or extended, or 
within six years after the expiration thereof. 

Skc. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and nineteen of 
the Revised Statutes be, and hereby is, canceled and repealed 
and the following substituted therefor and enacted in lieu 
thereof. 

' ' Sec. 4919. Damages for the infringement of any patent may 
be recovered in an action at law in the name of the party 
interested either as patentee, assignee, or grantee. And 
whenever in such action a verdict is rendered for the plaintiif, 
except as provided in section eight, the court may enter judg- 
ment for any sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, 
exclusive of costs, in lieu of damages and profits or the plaintiff 



3 

shall be entitled to recover the damages caused by the infringe- 
ment of the defendant, and in addition thereto the total profit 
of the defendant derived from the unlawful use of the patented 
invention, and in this case the court may enter judgment on 
the verdict for any sum above the amount found by the verdict 
as the damages sustained, according to the circumstances of 
the case, not exceeding three times the amount of such verdict, 
together with the costs. ' ' 

Sec. 5. That a court of equitable jurisdiction, after personal 
notice to all parties shown by the records of the Patent Office 
to be interested, may pass the title to I^etters Patent of the 
United States, or any interest therein, by decree, without any 
act on the part of the defendant, whenever, in its opinion, that 
shall be the proper mode of enforcing the equitable rights of 
the parties, and a copy of such decree when recorded in the 
Patent Office shall be legal notice to all parties, and such decree 
while in force shall be as effectual to transfer said I^etters Pat- 
ent, or any interest therein, as a conveyance to the same effect 
executed by such defendant. 

Skc. 6, That the Commissioner of Patents may refund to the 
payer money paid into the Patent Office by mistake. 

S:ec. 7. That the Assistant Commissioner of Patents shall 
perform such duties pertaining to the office of the Commis- 
sioner as may be assigned to him by the Commissioner, and in 
the absence of the Commissioner he shall be Acting Commis- 
sioner. 

Skc. 8. That section forty-nine hundred and twenty-one of 
the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended by 
adding thereto the following clauses : "But hereafter, when- 
ever a patent is alleged to be infringed, the patentee or his 
representative shall seek his remedy by bringing suit in the 
first instance against the manufacturer or vendor of the article 
alleged to infringe said patent, provided such manufacturer or 
vendor can be found within the United States, and shall in no 
case bring suit against any individual who shall have purchased, 
in good faith, an article of a regular dealer in the open market 
for. his own use, or who shall innocently use for agricultural or 
domestic purposes a patented article until the patent has been 
sustained by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction; 



I iRRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

019 923 867 



Provided, That such individual purchaser shall give to said 
patentee, or his representative, at his request, the name and 
residence of the party from whom said article was purchased, 
and that the manufacturer or vendor can be found within the 
United States, and when a suit is brought against an innocent 
purchaser the remedy shall be limited to an injunction, and 
plaintiff shall pay aU costs. And provided also, That this 
exemption from liabiHty of the innocent purchaser shall not 
apply to any corporation, firm or company, nor to any corpora- 
tion or party, as to any patented machine or process made or 
used by them for the manufacture of an article or product for 
sale. Actions at law or suits in equity for infringements of 
patent rights may be brought in the district where the infringer 
has a place of business, whether the defendant or defendants 
be domiciled therein or in some other district. 

The courts of equity of the United States shall have juris- 
diction of cases of infringement of patents, after a patent shall 
have expired, for the purpose of ordering an account and pay- 
ment to the owner of the patent of such profits as may have 
been made by the infringer during the lifetime of the patent 
from the infringement complained of. 

Sec. 12. That all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with 
the provisions of this Act be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 



t.3 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 923 867 fi 



